What do a tractor fire, a guinea pig, a wedding, and a trip to Vegas have in common? They are all things that were part of my summer vacation.

This summer, I took off my blogging hat, put away the SEO, and just enjoyed the summer with my boys and husband. It wasn’t all rainbows and butterflies because they did their fair share of driving me crazy, but we had a lot of fun.

Our Trip to Tennessee

At the end of June, the boys and I loaded up in the van and headed to Tennessee to visit my family. Summer is Clint’s busy season, for work, so he, unfortunately, didn’t get to go with us. Which meant I took my first solo nine-hour drive with all four boys. Miraculously, we all survived the trip and I arrived with all my hair. I’m sure it’s a trip my boys won’t soon forget, because of a little tractor mishap.

And by small mishap, I mean that the hay baler caught on fire.

While my five-year-old was RIDING IN THE TRACTOR with my dad.

I’m just sitting by the pool, drink in hand when my dad comes driving up and he’s yelling something. My stepmom and I both thought he was yelling for us to tell one of the other boys they could have a turn. At this point the fire was small and I didn’t see it at first. I couldn’t understand what he was saying so I get up to go closer. That’s when I saw the fire and realized he was yelling, “Get the hose!” My little one runs out of the tractor, and into the house, while my step-mom grabs the hose and I call 911. Because my family lives in a really small town (population less than 2,500) they rely mainly on volunteer fire departments. It took a while for them to get there, but in the meantime, quite a few neighboring farmers stopped by to try to help put the fire out. You really have to love how small towns come together to help each other out.

Did I mention that this happened on our second day of vacation?? Thankfully, the rest of our vacation was pretty uneventful (minus a small firework incident). The rest of our vacation consisted of swimming in the pool, riding the four wheeler and playing cornhole. We headed home a day earlier than we had originally planned because Clint missed the boys, but we left Jordan behind and he stayed another week. Clint met him in Nashville and he took his first ever plane ride to get back home. He was a little scared because he is afraid of heights, but he ended up loving it.

The Newest Member of Our Family

While we were in Tennessee, our fish died. The boys had been asking for a hamster for a while, so Clint headed to the pet store to get them one. After reading about hamsters and guinea pigs, we decided to go with a guinea pig. Everything I read seemed like they would be better pets for kids. Nolan was a little upset because he wanted a hamster so he could get this little hamster car for it.

Clint picked up this little cutie and the boys named him Snowball.

The dogs aren’t really sure about him, so we keep him in Everett’s room, just to be safe. He’s pretty friendly and I love the little noises he makes. It’s almost like he’s talking to us!

A Move and a Wedding

Right after we got back from Tennessee, my mom moved to Ohio and ended up buying a house about 30 minutes away from us. Her and her fiance, Richard, also decided they wanted to get married on my mom’s birthday. They asked me to help with the planning and I had about three weeks to do it. It was a really small backyard wedding but it was perfect. The weather was wonderful, the food was delicious, and the ceremony was really nice. Looking back, I’m not sure how we managed to cram everything into those three weeks, but we did! Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures, so I had to steal this one off of my mom’s Facebook page. Sorry, Momma!

Our Trip to Vegas

Less than a week after my mom’s wedding, Clint and I went on our first vacation, without kids, since we got married (it’s been almost 13 years!!). We got married in Vegas, but when we got married, I was only 19. I didn’t really get to experience Vegas the way you should, so we decided to go back. We left on Thursday morning and got back really early Monday morning. It was a much-needed break before school started back up.

Thursday night we took a cab down to Fremont Street, which is something we didn’t do the first time we went together. Clint’s been to Vegas a ton, so he had been there, but I really wanted to go and see all the lights. I really wanted to do the zip line down Fremont, but after reading reviews online (hearing about the ridiculous lines) I decided to skip it.

Friday morning we woke up and decided that we were going to walk the whole strip. We were staying at the Luxor, so we decided to take a cab to the other end of the strip and walk back. We started at 8:00 am and ended up back at our hotel around 8:30 pm. Man, those hotels look a lot closer together than they actually are! We weaved back and forth and went in 15 different casinos on our way back. We even went into the Wynn and ended up coming out from the Encore. We still can’t figure out how we did that.

I was horrible about taking pictures, but I had to make sure I took a picture of this beautiful carousel made from flowers! Pretty sure this was at the Wynn, but I’m not entirely sure. I just knew that I had to take a picture of it!

I only took a few other pictures while we were there. I would be a horrible travel blogger! All that matters is that we had fun!

Saturday night we had tickets to see Carrot Top. We saw him when we got married, and he was so funny that I wanted to see him again. I’m pretty sure I have never laughed so much in my life! Have you ever laughed so hard that you have tears coming out of your eyes and you’re giving yourself a headache? That’s what happens to me when I watch Carrot Top perform. If you EVER have the chance to see him live, jump on it! You can thank me later!

We got back home around 2:00 am on Monday morning. Clint literally came home, packed a bag, and had to head back to the airport to catch a 5:00 am flight. I, on the other hand, got to sleep for just a little bit before I had to take Jordan to his middle school orientation. Two days later, my older three started school, and the next day my littlest one started Kindergarten.

Now that we’ve settled into a routine and things are starting to calm down a little bit, it’s time to start focusing on my blog again. Instead of posting three times a week, like I was doing, I’m going to bump it down to two times a week. There’s a lot more I need to learn about blogging, so I’m going to spend the extra time learning everything I can!

How did you spend your summer? I would love to know all the awesome things you did!

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My name is Alexandria, but since we're friends, you can call me Alex! I'm a mom to four crazy boys, that loves to decorate cakes and do all kinds of crafty things. Welcome to my little part of the internet, where I get to escape from the chaos, for just a bit, and share my latest creations with you! And just in case no one has told you today, let me be the first to tell you how awesome I think you are!